Raven Housing Trust Limited (202533194)

Decision
Case ID	202533194
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	Raven Housing Trust Limited
Landlord type	Housing Association
Occupancy	Assured Shorthold Tenancy
Date	26 June 2026

Background

1. The resident complained about the landlord’s handling of her reports of antisocial behaviour (ASB) involving her neighbour. She said the landlord’s response was inadequate and that the ASB had escalated. The landlord accepted that it could have managed the reports more effectively. It apologised, identified learning, and offered compensation. The resident remained dissatisfied and said she wanted the landlord to take action to safeguard her and her child.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of ASB.
3. We have also considered the landlord’s complaint handling.

Our decision (determination)

4. We found:
   1. Service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of ASB.
   2. Service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling.

We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Summary of reasons

Handling of reports of ASB

5. The landlord accepted that it did not manage the resident’s reports of ASB effectively. It apologised, identified learning, and offered compensation. However, it did not clearly explain the specific failures or set out what steps it had taken to prevent similar issues.

Complaint handling

6. The landlord acknowledged and responded to the complaint within its policy timescales. However, its response lacked detail and did not clearly explain the failures it had identified to the resident.

Putting things right

Where we find service failure, maladministration or severe maladministration we can make orders for the landlord to put things right. We have the discretion to make recommendations in all other cases within our jurisdiction.

Orders

Landlords must comply with our orders in the manner and timescales we specify. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of compliance with our orders by the due date set.

Order	What the landlord must do	Due date
1	Specific action order The landlord should revisit the order made in a previous investigation (reference 202215832) regarding the creation and publication of a standalone ASB procedure. The landlord has provided a draft procedure dated November 2023 and said it intended to refine and publish this for residents. However, it is unclear whether this is the final version, and we have not seen evidence that it has been published on the landlord’s website. By the compliance date, the landlord should confirm what steps it will take to finalise and publish the procedure, including the timescale for doing so.	No later than 07 August 2026
2	Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident £150 to recognise the inconvenience caused by its complaint handling failure to fully address the resident’s complaint about ASB. This must be paid directly to the resident by the due date, and the landlord must provide documentary evidence of payment.	No later than 24 July 2026

 

 

 

 

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
9 September 2025	The resident complained to the landlord about its response to her reports of ASB by her neighbour. She said the neighbour had verbally abused her and thrown excrement and other items into her garden and that she had reported this to the landlord, but the situation had escalated. This included an incident where she said she was assaulted and her property was damaged. She explained that the property had been allocated for medical reasons so her son could access a garden. However, she said she had been unable to use the garden during her tenancy and that the police had also now advised her not to use it.
24 September 2025	In its complaint response, the landlord acknowledged the impact of the issues on the resident and her child. It apologised for a lack of communication and acknowledgement of her reports. It said it would assign a tenancy enforcement officer to handle the reports of ASB and discuss available support with the resident. It said it could not comment on the police advice and that the choice not to use the garden was the resident’s own, but encouraged her to provide evidence to support its ASB investigation. It offered £100 compensation.
30 October 2025	The resident escalated her complaint. She said the landlord had not contacted her after an incident in June 2025 when she said she was assaulted in her garden. She described the impact of the ASB on her and her child’s health and said the landlord had not taken steps to safeguard them. She said she had provided evidence of incidents, but the landlord had not taken action.
1 December 2025	In its final complaint response, the landlord said the resident could request a formal ASB case review if she wanted a review of how her reports had been handled. It acknowledged delays and inconsistencies in its handling of the reports and increased its compensation to £400 to reflect the impact on the resident. It said ASB reports were now managed by its tenancy enforcement team to improve consistency and confirmed that her reports were being investigated. It separately asked the resident if she would support an injunction against her neighbour and consider a mutual exchange to another property.
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident referred her complaint to us as she remained dissatisfied. She said the landlord had not provided appropriate support. She said its suggestion that it could seek an injunction on her behalf would place her at risk. She also said its suggestion that she move to a flat with a communal garden was not appropriate. She said the ASB had continued for 5 years and that the landlord had not taken sufficient action to safeguard her and her son. She also raised concerns that the landlord had offered her a move to a new property and later withdrew this offer.

 

What we found and why

The circumstances of this complaint are well known by the parties involved, so it is not necessary to detail everything that’s happened or comment on all the information we’ve reviewed. We’ve only included the key information that forms the basis of our decision of whether the landlord is responsible for maladministration.

Complaint	Handling of the resident’s reports of ASB
Finding	Service failure

What we have not investigated

7. The resident told us that following a phone call with the landlord in November 2025, she was unhappy with the landlord’s decision to offer and then rescind the offer to move to a different property. She also said the landlord had not offered her appropriate support and disagreed with its request for her to support an injunction against her neighbour. The phone call between the landlord and resident happened after her complaint had been escalated to stage 2 of the landlord’s internal complaint process.
8. We have no power to investigate complaints that the landlord has not had the chance to put right first. The resident can raise these points as a new complaint with the landlord and may be able to bring it to us, if she remains dissatisfied with its response.
9. The resident told us that the landlord’s response to the ASB affected her health and that of her children. It would be fairer, more reasonable and more effective for the resident to make a personal injury claim for any injury caused. The courts are best placed to deal with this type of dispute as they will have the benefit of independent medical advice to decide on the cause of any injury and how long it might last. We have not investigated this further. However, we can decide if a landlord should pay compensation for distress and inconvenience.
10. The resident said the issues with ASB affected her since her tenancy began in 2020. She raised a formal complaint on 9 September 2025. We encourage residents to raise complaints in a timely manner, so that landlords can consider the issues whilst they are still ‘live’ and evidence is available to fairly investigate what happened. Taking into account the availability and reliability of evidence, this assessment will focus on the landlord’s handling of the ASB reports from 2024 until the landlord issued its final complaint response in December 2025.

What we have investigated

11. The resident’s complaints in September and October 2025 focused on the landlord’s response to her reports of ASB involving her neighbour. She said the behaviour had occurred throughout her tenancy and included verbal abuse, assault, damage to her property, and items being thrown into her garden. She said she had been unable to use the garden, despite the property being allocated to meet her son’s medical needs. She also said the police had advised her not to use the garden.
12. The resident said the landlord did not contact her as agreed and did not act on evidence she had provided. She described the impact of the ongoing ASB on her and her child and said she wanted the landlord to work with the local authority to resolve the issue.
13. In response, the landlord acknowledged the distress caused to the resident and her child by the ASB. It apologised for a lack of communication and said it would assign a tenancy enforcement officer to the case to provide support and progress the reports.
14. The landlord said it could not comment on advice given by the police and that any decision about using the garden was a personal matter. It signposted the resident to support services and asked her to continue providing evidence so it could investigate the reports.
15. In its final complaint response of December 2025, the landlord said the resident could request an ASB case review if she wished to challenge how her reports had been handled. It accepted there had been failings in its earlier management of the case and, considering the severity and impact of the incidents, including similar issues in 2024, it increased its compensation offer to £400. It also said it had changed how ASB cases were managed to improve consistency.
16. The landlord’s records show the resident reported ASB involving her neighbour in 2022 and 2023, and that it took actions to respond. In 2024, she made at least 3 reports, including noise, damage, harassment, and intimidation related ASB. She provided audio and video evidence and said further evidence was available.
17. The landlord responded in January 2024 and said the evidence it had reviewed to date did not show ASB occurring, but it committed to continue to review the information the resident provided. The records do not clearly show what actions it took following this or how the reports were concluded.
18. The records show the resident made a further report in March 2025. The landlord recorded that it would open an ASB case, but it has not provided evidence to support that this was completed or show what action it took in response.
19. The resident’s last contact before making her complaint was on 23 June 2025, when she reported verbal abuse by her neighbour.
20. The landlord’s ASB policy states it will contact a resident within 5 working days of receiving evidence, or within 10 working days to request evidence. The landlord contacted the resident on 25 July 2025, which was 25 working days after her report. This exceeded its timescales. It was therefore appropriate that the landlord acknowledged and apologised for the delay in its complaint responses.
21. The landlord has provided a draft copy of its ASB procedure, but it is unclear if this reflects the process used by staff and it was not referenced in its complaint response. This limits our ability to fully assess whether its actions were in line with its procedures. However, the records show it took some steps which would usually be expected in response to ASB cases after the complaint was made.
22. These included completing a risk assessment, communicating with the resident and external agencies, and requesting further evidence to support the investigation. It also discussed the resident’s request for a management move with her and explained why this was not supported, while outlining alternative housing options.
23. The landlord’s records indicate it attempted to engage with the resident after its final response to agree an action plan. The resident did not respond, and the landlord closed the ASB case in January 2026 due to a lack of engagement.
24. The landlord accepted that it did not handle the resident’s report of June 2025 effectively. However, its explanation of its handling of reports in 2024 was unclear and lacked detail. It also did not address the lack of response to the report made in March 2025.
25. The landlord did not clearly set out what failures had occurred, what actions it should have taken in line with its ASB policy and procedure, or why its response was not effective. Its response did not demonstrate clear learning or explain how it would prevent similar issues. We have not seen evidence that the appropriate actions taken after the June 2025 complaint were considered or applied to the earlier reports of ASB made in 2024 and March 2025.
26. Overall, the landlord acknowledged shortcomings in its handling of the ASB reports. It apologised, identified some learning, and offered compensation in line with its policy, which appropriately recognised the impact on the resident. It also took reasonable steps to progress its response to the ASB in line with its policy after the complaint.
27. However, the landlord’s complaint response did not clearly explain the failures in its handling of reports in 2024 or March 2025, and it did not address all of the issues identified in this investigation. It also did not set out what steps it had taken to prevent similar failings. Its response was incomplete and did not align with our Complaint Handling Code (the Code) and the Ombudsman’s resolution principles of: be fair, put things right and learn from outcomes. We have made orders to resolve these failings.
28. We have previously investigated an ASB complaint about the landlord under case reference 202215832 and ordered it to consider developing a standalone ASB procedure and making it publicly available.
29. The landlord has provided a draft copy of the procedure. However, we have not seen evidence that a final version has been implemented or published for the information of residents. We have made an order to address this.

Complaint	Complaint handling
Finding	Service failure

30. The landlord’s definition of a complaint and its response timescales were in line with our Complaint Handling Code (the Code).
31. The landlord handled the complaint in line with its policy timescales. However, as explained above, it did not respond to all the elements of the complaint, which is counter to the Code, and a failing in its complaint handling.
32. We have therefore ordered compensation to reflect the inconvenience caused by part of the complaint not being addressed. The amount is in line with our guidance for failings of this scale and nature.

Learning

33. The landlord may wish to review the Ombudsman’s Antisocial Behaviour expectations guidance on our website, to help improve its response to reports of ASB in the future.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

34. The landlord’s record keeping was incomplete and did not detail what actions it took into the resident’s reports of ASB in 2024 and early 2025. Good record keeping is essential for effective complaint handling and for demonstrating the steps taken to resolve issues. The landlord should review the Ombudsman’s Spotlight report on Knowledge and Information Management for guidance on how accurate and complete records support a high‑quality service to leaseholders.

Communication

35. The landlord has already identified that its communication with the resident should have been more effective. As it develops its service, the landlord should refer to the Ombudsman’s Spotlight report on Attitudes, Respect and Rights for guidance on how to communicate effectively with leaseholders in the future.